Vatican

Social doctrine published soon
A COMPENDIUM of the Church's social doctrine, a cherished project of the late Cardinal Francois Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan, is expected to be published soon.
Archbishop Renato Martino, the cardinal's successor as president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, made the announcement.
He is to preside over a Mass on Tuesday in memory of the cardinal, who spent years in Vietnamese prisons and who died in Rome a year ago at the age of 74.
The Mass is to be held at 6pm in Santa Maria della Scala in Rome, the cardinal's titular see.
Cardinal Van Thuan was aware of the enormous importance of the Church's social doctrine for the construction of a more just world, said Archbishop Martino, The cardinal. had begun, with his council, the redaction of a synthesis of the Church's social teaching, linked to the new evangelisation so desired by the Pope.
Pope expounds mercy of God
THE POPE has said God intervenes to purify sinners, not to destroy them.
Continuing a series of talks on the Liturgy of the Hours, he highlighted a canticle from the Book of Ezekiel describing how God purified his chosen people from the sin of idolatry.
About 11,000 people in St Peter's Square huddled under umbrellas in a light rain to listen to the Pope. The 83year-old Pontiff, who returned for the audience from his summer residence outside Rome, looked tired and had great difficulty speaking.
The Pope added: "The goal of God's action is never destruction, pure and simple condemnation, and oblitera
tion of the sinner. The Pope said God does not stand idly by in the face of evil but "enters mysteriously on the scene in human history with his judgement that. sooner or later, exposes evil, defends victims and indicates the path of justice".
Peace letter to be republished
THE VATICAN has decided to republish Pope John XXIII's 1963 encyclical Fru:ern in Terris because of its relevance for world peace today.
A "widespread feeling of fear" is the link between the two periods of history separated by four decades, said Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Vatican Secretary of State, in the preface.
He said that where once there was fear of atomic war today there is the "phenomenon of terrorism evidenced in all its horror".
Cardinal Sodano recalled the four pillars proposed by John XXIII — truth, justice, love, freedom — for the construction of peace, which calls for respect of each person's dignity and rights, fulfillment of duties, awareness of belonging to the world community, and a need for a supranational authority.
Pope proclaims Gospel of Life
POPE JOHN Paul 11 has said that every consecrated person has the urgent task of proclaiming "the Gospel of Life".
It was part of the message the Pope gave when he met the Claretian missionaries, in Rome for their congregation's general chapter.
In his address the Holy Father said: "These are times in which life, great gift of the Father, must be defended, cultivated and dignified, especially among the most abandoned. through a word of hope and abnegated gestures of acceptance and solidarity."
"That They May Have Life" is the motto of the general chapter of the Missionaries Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, as the Claretians are formally known. The chapter's 76 delegates had an audience with the Pope in the apostolic palace of Castel Gandolfo.
US urged to combat poverty
THE VATICAN'S newspaper has paid tribute to American victims of terrorist attacks but said the United States military campaign against international terrorism would not succeed in the face of continuing global economic injustice.
In a comment on the second anniversary of the tragedy, L'Osservarore Romano said the "crime of horrible gravity" had changed the history
of the world and left people everywhere with an enduring sense of anxiety.
The paper's chief foreign editor Giuseppe Petrone wrote: 'The terrorist attacks struck not only at US symbols of economic and military might but also represented an aggression against the value of peace founded on justice and forgiveness."
Church admits sin against Jews
THE CATHOLIC Church has recognised that Christians shared responsibility for antiSemitism and the attitudes that led to the Holocaust, a Vatican official has confirmed.
Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Vatican's Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, said the issue of anti-Semitism was linked to the question of how Christians viewed their own relationship to Jews as the "chosen people" of the Bible.
Cardinal Kasper said a 1997 Vatican symposium laid much of the groundwork for the clarification of the Church's teaching. Then, the Pope said there had been "erroneous and unjust interpretations of the New Testament circulated for ton long a time about the Jewish people and their presumed guilt, generating sentiments of hostility".
Cardinal Kasper said such examples could be seen in articles published by some Catholic magazines in the 19th and 20th centuries. He said the new attitude needed to be shared by the faithful at large and not limited to one-time gestures or documents at the Church's highest levels.